TECHNOLOGY
Additive Makes Markets
Additive manufacturing doesn’t just improve how we make things – it changes what we can make and who can make it. By removing tooling constraints, lowering startup costs, and enabling rapid design iteration, additive opens the door to products, business models, and markets that didn’t exist before. It empowers manufacturers to serve ultra-low-volume, high-complexity, or customized niches that traditional methods can’t reach profitably. Whether it’s aerospace, medical, or industrial MRO, additive turns capability into opportunity. For forward-looking shops, it’s not just a tool – it’s a ticket to new markets.
INTERNATIONAL
3D Printing as a Solution to Global Supply Chain Disruptions
Additive manufacturing has emerged as a powerful solution to global supply chain disruptions. Traditional manufacturing relies heavily on centralized production and international shipping, making it vulnerable to delays caused by pandemics, geopolitical conflicts, natural disasters, and port congestion. In contrast, 3D printing enables decentralized production, allowing companies to manufacture parts closer to the point of need. Instead of waiting weeks for overseas shipments, businesses can produce components on demand using digital design files. This reduces transportation costs, shortens lead times, and lowers the need for large inventories. As global markets and international trade continue to face uncertainty, AM provides flexibility and resilience. By shifting from physical supply chains to digital ones, companies can respond faster to market demands while reducing risk and dependency on distant manufacturers.
SMARTFORCE
Shape the Future, Layer by Layer
The Smartforce Career Pathways program at IMTS helps you grow your workforce pipeline with precision. Just like additive manufacturing, it starts with a solid base: your entry-level jobs, internships, or apprenticeships. Then we help you build visibility layer by layer by placing your opportunities on digital displays at the Student Summit in front of over 15,000 students and educators, on the Smartforce section of IMTS.com through the end of 2026, and in the Smartforce Newsletter that hits 7,000 inboxes every month. Visit IMTS.com/smartforce/careerpathways to learn more.
In the meantime, grow your network and social capital with AMT Meetups, coming this spring to Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. With our partners at the National Tooling and Machining Association and Women in Manufacturing, these regional events connect professionals from across verticals in a casual, high-impact, and fun setting. Registration opens soon at AMTonline.org/events.
ADVOCACY
Manufacturing Remains in Focus in Washington
To start the year, the White House and Congress are continuing a manufacturing-first push to rebuild the defense industrial base. Enacted last December, the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act reinforces that direction by prioritizing investment in the foundational manufacturing inputs that underpin defense readiness, including machine tools, castings, forgings, and advanced manufacturing equipment. One notable step is the creation of a Civil Reserve Manufacturing Network, modeled after the Civil Reserve Air Fleet, designed to better integrate commercial manufacturers into defense planning and ensure rapid access to production capacity during national emergencies. AMT is actively engaging with administration officials as this approach takes shape.
On the funding side, congressional appropriations track with these priorities, directing resources toward munitions, shipbuilding, and industrial base programs that send clearer demand signals to manufacturers. Together, these actions reflect a growing recognition in Washington that lasting defense strength depends on sustained investment in America’s manufacturing backbone – not just finished systems but the machines and capabilities that make them possible.
INTELLIGENCE
Where Momentum Meets Investment
The story of manufacturing in 2026 is not one of caution – it is one of acceleration. December closed with the highest monthly manufacturing technology orders ever recorded, capping a year in which manufacturing technology orders reported to the U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders program finished more than 22% above 2024 totals. After a period of adjustment, the fundamentals are strengthening in tandem: Manufacturing productivity in the third quarter of 2025 climbed 3.3% from its 2022 low; durable goods orders through November 2025 ran nearly 8% ahead of last year, and the ISM Purchasing Managers’ Index has surged back into expansion territory at 52.6 in January.
Capital flows tell an equally compelling story. Net exports of capital goods have averaged more than $18 billion in recent months, reflecting strong global demand and renewed momentum in U.S.-produced equipment. At the same time, trillions of dollars in investment commitments announced by the Trump administration – including $1.6 trillion tied to companies engaged with IMTS – signal a substantial reinvestment cycle forming just over the horizon. If even a modest share of those commitments translates into capital spending, the result would be billions of dollars in additional annual equipment investment – enough to rival, and potentially nearly double, recent machine tool order levels. The momentum is not speculative; it is measurable, and it is building.
To read the rest of the State of Additive Issue of MT Magazine, click here.
